Kara J. Jencks, M.D. (she/her) is the advocacy chair for Rainbows in Gastro. She is a gastroenterology and hepatology fellow at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Dr. Jencks is on the T32 Research Track, which is sponsored by a National Institutes of Health Digestive Disease Multidisciplinary Training Grant. Her clinical focus is disorders of gut-brain interaction (DGBI), neurogastrointestinal disease, and motility disorders. Her research focus is clinical and translational neurogastroenterology and analyzing neurogastrointestinal disease and DGBIs from a health disparities and social determinants of health lens, particularly in the sexual and gender minority community. To do this, she plans to utilize the novel field of social epigenomics. She is passionate about advocacy and health equity for sexual and gender minority patients and other vulnerable patient groups. She has vast experience in creating curriculum targeting practicing evidence based and compassionate care for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, including multidisciplinary “Allies Trainings” and a sexual and gender minority health elective for internal medicine and internal medicine-pediatrics residents. During residency at the University of Michigan, Michigan Medicine Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI, she was selected as and completed the Health Equity and Quality Scholar Program. Her primary career goal is to improve health disparities for sexual and gender minority patients in gastroenterology and continue to advocate for improving 2SLGBTQIA+ health.
@KaraJencks (Twitter/X)
@karajencks (threads)